Mexico weekly ledger. (Mexico, Mo.) 1855-1956, 1887-12-08
From cranks. Deliver us j.

Il
He is a crank" This exclams.-
ton, pronounced with varying I'M
fiections, has come to be very
common one. Sometimes it is
spoken with an emphasis which
says simply that the fact cannot be
questioned. Again, there is a.
touch Of sarcasm that declares the !
disgust of the speaker for the
character thus announced. Often
bit is uttered in exactly the same
tones that would be employed in
saying, "He is fooll" It all do
lpends upon the temperament of the
individual speaking.
Cranks are undoubtedly very
numerous, and perhaps never more
SO than just at the present time,
when SO many social matters have
been unhinged from their old places
and are awaiting q settlement.
Religious views, too, have changed
to most wonderful degree, aid
the natural consequence of all this
upheaval Of old beliefs that once
seemed as firmly fixed as the hills,
is the production Of enthusiasts in
every line ofthought, with opinions,
which, in their own consciousness,
they believe should govern the
world. They may or may. not be.
cranks, though hasty Judgment
is apt to pronounce them so.
eWhat constitutes crank?n is
1 the question. Where should the
line be drawn to separate the en-
thusiast who is working for re-
form, who is radical in his beliefs
and determined to make them a.-
cepted, and the person who can be
counted a crank? That distine-
ton should be made, seems to be
really important, for the habit Of
using the word Unfortunately, is
growing SO strong, that to be radical
in anything is to challenge the
opprobious epithet which many
times works rank injustice.
| When person becomes SO
lpermeated with an idea that he
grows into its walking impersona-
tion, when he is utterly unable co
fix his thoughts upon anything else,
when he introduces it upon all oc-
casions and under circumstances
that render it, however, good, Of
fensive, when he condemns as
utterly unworthy of respect all
who differ with him even in degree,
when friends are uncounted or
neglected in his eagerness to for
ward his own views, then he be-
comes a crank. Enthusiasm does
not make crank. An individual
may be as radical as possible and
lyet be in no sense a crank. With
all his confidence in his own beliefs
he yet knows the time and place TO
urge them. He does not bring
them into the social circle to pro-
woke and disrupt it, as will the
crank, nor does he imagine that the
world of people who may differ has
Igone mad.
| Radicalism is necessary to bring a
reform. .-Crankism is not. Society
has no use for cranks. They injure
the cause that they fight for, ard
frequently undo the good work
which others have accomplished.i in
the direction which their crankiness
has taken. There are religious
cranks, temperance cranks and So
cial reform cranks, from all of which
the honest worker in the endeavor
to help humanity to advance may
Earnestly pray to be delivered.
i If there be any class of people
who, more than another, know the
length and breadth, the height and
depth of the meaning of this word
crank, it is ye editor. Flights of
stairs that reach from earth up into
the heavens cannot keep him from
their presence. He is submerged
with their communications, he is
driven wild with their persisteney,
and only the consciousness of a
lweil-doing in this life that will Sc
cure him an immunity from such
an evil in the next, preserves him
from insanity.
4 w. X. Potts is at work on plans
1 for summer and winter resort,
which, if carried out, win result in
an institution that will be the pride
of Mexico. His idea is to con-
struct an artificial lake at some &C
oaccib1o noipt ta noyar Snvaya